Virginia Higbee and Anne Judd from Utah were in Galway for a day on Thursday with their tour leader Fred Adams, who brings a group of around 40 theatre patrons to Ireland every year.

Higbee attested that if Americans knew about the cryptosporidium outbreak which has hospitalised over 150 people in the county, "They wouldn't come. It would frighten them. They just wouldn't come here."

"I think people would get nervous because of the health issue, " Judd said. Adams agreed: "For health reasons I think it would frighten groups away. We're staying in Limerick. We read about it in the paper. But if we were planning on staying here, we would have decided not to go. Our agenda had already been planned, but if it hadn't we would have asked not to stay overnight here." Some took the issue in their stride. "The water's great, " one of their party joked, holding up a large glass of Baileys.

Robert Thidemann from Long Island in New York who travelled to Galway through Shannon only heard about the polluted drinking water when he arrived in the city. "It didn't really scare us, but I imagine for people who are staying here longer it would be a problem, or for people who have health problems, " he said. "It's definitely a bit annoying about the brushing teeth thing. You tend to forget that, and also to remember to close your mouth tightly in the shower."

It would turn you off A group of travellers from North Bay Rugby Club in Wisconsin who were on a rugby tour of Ireland also found the issue an inconvenience. "We had read about it in the papers, " said Rick Lorenzet, whose son is part of the rugby team. "We've asked a lot of questions, is it okay to drink the coffee, what about ice cubes, and those sort of issues. I think for people, it's more of a mental worry than a physical one, but it would turn you off."

Following the confirmation of an outbreak of cryptosporidium in Galway's drinking water on 16 March, there were fears that tourism would be affected. Organisers of the main festivals in the county this summer have been attempting to allay fears that numbers will be down. Maura Kennedy, the programme director of the Cuirt International Festival of Literature, told the Sunday Tribune that "none of the guests have been in touch to say that they're concernedf the foot and mouth outbreak was more serious as far as we are concerned. Sars as well, because we had people coming from Canada."

Cuirt organisers will be informing people travelling to the festival of the drinking-water contamination. "The hotel is informing them as well;

they're taking steps to make sure everyone is aware. I can see how it's deeply unnerving for restaurants and so on, " Kennedy said. "We want people to have a good experience here, and obviously this will interfere with it."

A representative from the Galway Races, which is worth 60m to the local economy, said the organisers were meeting in Dublin this week to discuss their plans. The festival, which takes place at the end of July, could also be hit by the inconvenience of boiling water for any use, or buying bottled water.

But it's not just the tourists who are suffering.

On Holy Thursday, it's a warm start to the bank holiday weekend in Galway and in a SuperValu supermarket just across a bridge over the River Corrib in the city, a steady flow of people have been queuing since 8am for clean water. A private water company has been distributing free water, and word of the offer has spread across the city, with hundreds of locals joining long queues that last all day. "You'd think it was free whiskey they were queuing for, " an elderly woman remarked when she saw the length of the line of people. Most of those in the queues were elderly people along with women with young children. "I live on my own and I boil the water. It would be worse if we had no water at all, that's what I keep thinking about, the people who have none at all.

"Who would have ever thought we'd have to queue for water in this country? I have to say, it's a very levelling experience, " Mary Welsh who lives nearby said. Teresa Feeney from Salthill was also queuing for water. "It's a nuisance, " she said. "If it's going to last all summer, it'll be chaos.

It should have been seen to long ago. How it has been let go this far I don't know. I think it's just bad management."

Outside, a Red Cross ambulance was being loaded up with water by volunteers Dominick Burke and June Spellman to deliver to the elderly around the city. "A lot of the elderly can't get out to buy water. Some don't even realise it's contaminated because they don't watch the television, " Burke said. Their unit of Red Cross workers had recently sent out water purification systems to the developing world with funds they had raised, "and to think now we're in our own town delivering water", he said.

Most initiatives to source and distribute clean water have been made not by the councils, but by private individuals and companies, adding to widespread exasperation that not enough is being done to solve the problem at a county and city level.

At the launch of this weekend's Galway Comedy Festival, the mayor of Galway, Niall O'Brolchain of the Green Party, didn't have much to smile about. "The whole system is in need of attention.

There was a belief that this could never happen to us, a belief that Lough Corrib could take everything that was thrown at it, " he told the Sunday Tribune. "It's symptomatic of the fact that people take the environment for granted, developers in particular. The economic price of development in Galway is coming home to roost. There has been endless development, farming and forestry without taking the environmental concerns into account."

When asked about confusion over the source of the contamination, O'Brolchain said his message to the council was "find it, lads". O'Brolchain said part of the problem with fixing water treatment in Galway was that nobody would take responsibility for the various issues and territories involved.

"If you look at Dublin, water from the reservoir in Roundwood is owned by Dublin City Council.

There's no way there's sewage going in there.

But we have a situation where Lough Corrib is not maintained by Galway City Council. We're drinking from a water source that we have no control over and that is being treated like a toilet. There should be an overall body in charge of water. It's up to the Department of the Environment . . . I don't care what Dick Roche says . . . he is responsible for local government, " he said, adding, "If this happened in Dublin, it wouldn't be tolerated", a sentiment echoed by most in Galway, angry at those who allowed this situation to happen, and at those who, in their eyes, don't appear to be doing everything they can to remedy it.